Photos: Brooks Fritz

Most Ewoks are high. They live among the trees of Oceanside’s forests, in villages built between the closely spaced trees. Ewoks venture to the forest floor to shred, and set traps to catch various bmx prey.

For the forest dwellers, the surrounding giant trees play an important cultural role. These hunter-gatherers are a deeply spiritual people. They believe themselves to be descendants of the Great Jah Tree, a sacred tree in the forests.

The tribal structure of the Ewoks has a Council of Elders ruling over them, and the Council is headed by the Chief.

A medicine man also lives in the Ewok village, a keeper of mystical lore, and a healer to the injured.

He goes by the name of Al Qaida Chris.

Justin Hindery, lipslide

Jamie Weller, Backside tail slide

front side tail slide

Crail Front Blunt

The sacred tree was the main focus for the days session. Ewok Jamie went to work.

yanker in

I like the shadow on this ollie pivot ollie out.

Butt shot blunt to fakie by Willis Kimbel

willis, back lip

Xeno Miller, Board slide to fakie

Justin Hindery, 50/50

Jamie Weller, backside blunt slide

Willis Kimbel, Backside lip slide

Jamie, back tail

Xeno, krooked grind

Ewok village awaits for your arrival.

Tags: Alqueda Chris, beer beagle creation, Jamie Weller, jamie weller demo, Jivaro, Jivaro Wheels, justin hindrey, willis kimbel, xeno miller

Photos/story: Brooks Fritz

I got a call yesterday morning from my friend Justin who works for Burton Snowboards saying I should come up and lurk at Mountain not so High and ride and eat free for the day. Free snowboarding? I had a hard time turning that down! I mean free cheeseburgers, beers and a day on the hill? I was there. So here’s some photos from my short day at Mt High. Yeah it was a short day cause I got broke off. Snowboarding may be easier to learn but damn those things in a flash can have you on the ground wondering what the hell just happened.

The drive from Oceanside to Mt. High is pretty quick. A lot faster then going to Big Bear that’s for sure. Like 2 hrs max. Plus you can go by Bass Pro Shops on the way or on the way back. But who would want to do that. Fishing is for old bitter men. Wait is that me?

Burton was set up at the East Resort. It’s smaller, less hectic and a lot mellower then the West resort. Pretty much what I am about. Besides the smaller part. Because I always go big!

The Beast

It’s better then it looks. Sorry I have no riding photos. When I was about to bust out the camera I decided for some reason to bust half a back flip to my busted shoulder. Maybe it was the super fun happy time mountain sodas I was drinking on the lifts in between runs.

The East side has a park now.

Burton had it set up proper. BBQ, next years boards, boots, bindings and beer. The little trailer has a flat screen in it too. Pretty much a lurk fest.

Brad Fisher showing me next years line.

Seriously if you are thinking of buying a snowboard. Especially a brand new one, it’s a good idea to try before you buy. Those things aren’t cheap. I’d be so pissed if I spent 500 big ones on a shred stick that I didn’t even like. But then again I would never pay that much for a shred stick. That’s why I’m a photo goon. Where’s the prizzy?

This one is for you Luke! Crates of records on the top sheet.

Keeping it real. New board, Classic Burton logo

Bindings. They keep your feet on the board.

Boots. Yeah, your half cabs wont work too well in the snow.

This guy.

Bob Ross board?

Forum had their stuff set up too.

Back on the road and off to another destination. Must be rough.

R.I.P Bob

Tags: 2011 product preview, bob ross, Brad fisher, Burton Snowboards, cheeseburgers, demo days, forum snowboards, free lift ticket, happy little trees, Justan panian, mountain high, Mt High, photo goon, prizzy, tom broke off

Photos: Brooks Fritz

With all the development going on out east of San Diego ranches and other random properties are quickly getting dozed by the dozen and leveled for more cookie cutter “affordable” housing. Don’t forget with all the traffic that brings the roads need to be redeveloped. So widening of highways is going on as well. Who cares right? You should. It’s creating  new options for some skateboard riding right now. Maybe you are thinking, Boring! More pool stuff? Wheres the street skating? Guess what? This is street skating! It’s just taking place in people’s back yards instead of on there front porch handrail. If you cant see that by now then take off the horse blinders.

Want Directions?

Find the silos.

Then turn at the cactus field and

look for the lone house getting over grown with plants and

you will find

a square that is better then a lot of rounds.

Not a shoe box. The corners are good.

Oh I almost forgot! This is the pool with the infamous love seat Jamie Thomas did that layback front side rock on for a Circa ad a few years back when pool skating was the next cool thing since girl pants on dudes. Well that awesome hand down, excuse me layback rock forever embarrassed himself and pretty much got him blacklisted from the backyard community. Why? Because if you have been to this pool you would know that anyone coould pretty much do that there. So why the hell is the “chief” doing that there? Just kind of funny I guess. That and the other shit he tried to pull at the pool in Albany while on King Of The Road for Thrasher didn’t help either.  All joking around put aside, Why would you ever try to put the directions to a pool in Thrasher because the locals didn’t want it blown out? That’s just ridiculous.  Think I’m making this stuff up. Google  it. Actually here it is lazy bastards. http://www.theskateboardindustry.com/tsi/article.aspx?ID=295

Kaboom! I mean Verboom Dairy

A rare square with good corners. They don’t come around too often.

The square was more of a solo recon mission to see if everything was good to go but other then that not much skating went on. Yeah I took some runs but think about it. Do you want to skate a pool by yourself? I sure don’t. I have that kind of luck where I would try to keep it mellow and then something stupid would happen and I would get broke off  and left to die at the bottom of the pool. But maybe that is just me.

Drop it likes it’s hot.

After the Square mission I met up with  a few friends to skate some other ranch finds.

Ripe ranch pears are good.

Hand picked, ripe, fresh and ready to go.

Do you see the weird happy face in this one?

Sweet butt shot of Darrel Delgado huh?

Jamie Weller got the stairs…. not before Cobra though.

No need to tell him. Willis knows no hands down are allowed.

-Have a good week.

Tags: Buffalo, Darrel Delgado, jamie thomas, jamie thomas circa ad, jamie thomas lay back front side rock, Jamie Weller, pala orland, sqaure pool, verboom dairy, willis kimble

By: Brooks Fritz

If your ever in Portland Oregon and don’t know what to do with your money head on over to Shrunken Head skate shop and spend all that cash. Unlike your standard mall shop or surf shop where the workers dont know jack shit about skating these guys actually do. It might have to do with that they are skateboarders first, business owners second.

Owned and operated by Justin Hindery and Mike Mccarley  are two humble dudes who aren’t trying to come up with some big scheme or get rich quick act. They are just trying to keep the dream alive. What dream is that? If you cant figure out by now then I dont know what to tell you. So if you are ever in P Town and need some grip, shoes, bearings, boards, etc Shrunken Head will have it and you will be helping keep that dream alive.

http://www.shrunkenheadskateboards.com/Home_Page.html

Address: 521 S.E. Morrison

Portland, Oregon 97214

Store Hours

Weekdays: 12-7

Saturday: 10-6

Sunday: 12-5

Phone: 503 232 HEAD

Team: Ryan Casado, Rocco Caravelli, Ben krahn, David Gravette, Dorfus, Taj Hanson, Xeno Miller, Andrew Adams, David Appelo, Peter Gunn, Brian Sloane, Jamie Weller, Collin Crespiro, Xander Dunlap, Chet Childress, Jeremy Tuffli, Clay Hunt, Corbin Hindrey

All of your favorite brands and then some…

Seriously. What you need?

Maybe some Jivaro’s?

Does anybody ride anything besides Indy?

If you didn’t know already.

Self Explanatory

Shop must be cool. I mean why else would Sam Hitz and Neil Heddings go there?

Plus right down the street is Burnside. So when the scary loc’s snap your board because you cant roll into the crow’s nest first run head back on over to Shrunken Head and pick yourself up a new stick!

Maybe you might even get a chance to see The Five…

Photography by Brooks Fritz

Yeah. It’s still cool. What am I talking about? Pool skating. Yes, backyard pools are still in. The only reason I skate these things is because it’s popular. If it wasn’t cool I don’t think I would ever step foot in one of them. With that being said here’s some photos of some super cool guys that are really concerned with the skate scene. Texas Dan and Slob skating a backyard pit in Carlsbad, California.

I mean how much funner would this pool be if it had water in it?

Texas

Slob

Dan

WeedMan

GT showing how much hop your gonna need in this hip

I’m guessing Darrel Delgado would be saying this is Terror

Remember Matt Hensley Skating this ditch back in the H-Street Videos? Yeah it’s still there.

Platipus

Texas Dan is no Matt Hensley and Matt Hensley is no Texas Dan.

outa beer, outa here…

-Have a good week!

Tags: bank forclosure, box grind, hensley ditch, Pool Skating, robert weedman, slob, slob weedman, TA invented skateboarding, TERROR, texas dan

Photos by: Brooks Fritz

With rain in So Cal  it generally means no skating unless your indoors and since we really don’t have much indoor stuff around here in Southern California means no skating for a few days I guess. So what to do? Go fish? Nah, that shit is for old people. Hang out in the house? Now way! I do that way too much already taking care of my two kids. Just sit around and drink? Booooring! So what to do? Go snowboard I guess. Yeah, you might be too cool or think it’s lame but this snowboard stuff if a hell of a lot of fun. Yeah, it isn’t free but every once in a while it’s great for the soul. At least it is to me. I don’t know any other sport that is as close to skating that can be learned in one day. No you wont be a master in one day or even five days but you definitely will be shredding the hill top to bottom your first day. Think about it. Do you see families going on vacation to learn how to skate.? But with the snowboarding people do that all the time. I think my friend Richard said it best. Snowboarding is like golf. It’s kind of annoying and painful to watch but the actual partaking in the activity is a blast! If not the best!

So with over 6ft of snow puking down and pounding are local mountains I decided to drive up to Bear Mtn in the San Bernardino national forest and get my shred on. Sorry for the lack of action shots. It’s kinda hard to set up a pow turn on the self timer.

Inland Empire has mountains

Are there pools in those hills Salba?

Buggy Life

Look. That’s real snow.

Looking good

As soon as I got up to the hill it was socked in with clouds. The moutain was pretty empty all day. Maybe it was because of the flat light. What’s flat light? It’s what it sounds like. Light that is flat. Makes it hard to see anything. That’s one thing you never hear someone complaining about while skating. “Damn this mini ramp is hard to grind with all this flat light”

Art of filler you decide.

Powder in So cal? Believe it!

Ok, so this is what it’s all about. It’s not about the 80ft kickers, the rails or even the half pipe. It’s about the champagne cherry cherry pow pow! I’m joking. Actually, i’m not. Powder is the shit. If you have never rode one of these things or rode powder at all just picture it like this: Bombing hills with your friends at top speeds in complete control doing 40 ft ollies with out even 2nd guessing and then doing turns like your Rick Kane at the 89′ Pipe masters .

Those trees were some good riding. 4 0r 5 days after the big dump and there was still fresh tracks. In Big Bear! You just had to work for it.

The keystone waterfall is in the San Bernardino Mountains too!

I had a blast. But after riding a half day solo I was ready to split. On my way home though I stopped by the infamous Pala pool to see what kinda shape it was in.

Yup, it’s still there.

But it will never be ridden again

I even made it home for the sunset. Have a good week. Looks like we might be getting more snow this week brodunkles!

PHOTOS BY: BROOKS FRITZ

So I got a call the other weekend to come out and shoot this roof drop. I had never been to this spot before or seen a photo of it so I really had no idea what to expect. To say the least, this thing is pretty sketchy. I’ve only had it happen a few times where I actually felt concerned for someone’s health when trying a trick and this day was one of them. I was worried the wheels would stick on the first try and he would go tumbling down the roof onto the rail below or something like that. Luckily that didn’t happen and no one got broke off too hard. With that being said, Here’s Cameron Wetzler with a first descent in Del Mar, California.

Raise the Roof! Oh, I mean drop the roof!

Dude you totally yard saled on that pillow line!

Red filter weirdness

EXTREME DEATH LENS!

Droppin Hammers… Wait that’s Greco. Cameron be droppin roofs.

Tags: cameron wetzler, del mar, first descent, red filter, roof drop

Photos by: Brooks Fritz

Hmmmmm hot pockets. Aren’t they great? So while everyone else is busy focusing on going bigger and bigger with giant cool guy bowls and super sized mega ramps and gaps and rails that could possibly kill you I’m riding the fun shit. Mirco machines! I mean seriously a mega ramp? Are you trying to ride that thing? Or how about  a 20 ft bowl? If you are good for you but that’s not for me. I’m not trying to kid myself and I’m not trying to knock that jock stuff either but that’s pretty much what it takes to ride that super sized big boy stuff.

And well, thank god I’m getting more and more comfortable with being a pussy

Here’s some photos from a recent session with Kyle G, Darrel Delgado and Ry in San Clemente, California

I’m Sorry, you cant blast your 12ft jock air in this one.

Or maybe I’m just bitter I cant blast 12ft jock airs?

Darrel Delgado. Do I need to explain more?

I was too busy skating when Ry was rolling in all over the place and trying to get his first front side backyard shallow end grind. He did get some backside ones in though

Where’s the god damn prizzy!

No this is not a photo of Darrel crying. This is a photo of Darrel crushing the fuck out of this shallow end with a front side grind where 97 out of 100 people would be crying trying to get a grind.

Kyle

No it’s nothing like the fake shallow end at your local skate park. It’s the real thing and it’s not easy.

What you don’t like front side grinds? What do you expect? Front side flip nose blunt backside revert?

How about backside grinds?

What is this? Tricks? Get that garbage outta here? Don’t you know we only front side grind and back side grind backyard pools. I guess Kyle didn’t get the memo that tricks aren’t allowed and did a crail in the shallow. I thought I was going to get hit in the temple so I geeked the photo.

Whoa Duuude! That would be totally cool if it was 1974. What are you doing front side carve grinding cant you just stand up on that brick coping?

I guess you would just have to be there.

‘

No hands down allowed means no make yet for kyle on this front side rock slide.

Darrel doesn’t like the comment I previously wrote. So this is what you get instead.

TERROR

Photography by: BROOKS FRITZ

Another year. Another beer. 2009 is over. I figured I’d start off the new year with a little history in origin of the sideways activities. This skateboarding and snowboarding stuff  has been around a long time but not as long as surfing. With the waves being really good earlier this week I decided to hook up with a couple of my surfer browski’s at point break and shoot some flicks of them getting rad in their rubber suits. So with that being said here’s a little tribute to the godfather of the other fun things we do sideways. And no I’m not talking about snake boarding or wake boarding.

Lighting was crazy all day. No I did not mean lightning. I meant lighting. You know that stuff that makes a photo?

Rubber suit alley oop by D Man

DEREK BOCKELMAN

So you uh like stand there and have the water fall over you. What is fun about that?

Johnny Utah was nowhere to be found in these empties at point break on Monday.

Pelican

Frontside reverse warm up flipty flounder flop

Zach Rhinehart

Zach, being the professional he is was surfing with no leash and riding a board that’s been sitting in the backyard for a few years.

To the north of me.

To the south of me.

Zach

Switch barrel?

Double trucker? oh wait I mean truck driver.

Zach with a OK one…hint the sarcasm.

The Keystone waterfall was going off in the evening session.

Derek

Taj Tucker doing a turn Coach Flex cant stand.

MIKE COTTRELL

Cool or too much with the slow shutter speed? Ahh I don’t care what you think. I like it!

Ding Dong Derek had no problem getting a double digit number of tubes this day. On land and in the water.

Derek with another one and that’s that.

uh huh

Now dont get washed up this new year! Or maybe it’s too late.

Hope you enjoyed the surfing photos. I know you cant wear that much flare in the water so surfing will never be as cool as skating or snowboarding but hey at least the wetsuit is tight like the girl pants you wear!

Have a good weekend and happy new year!

PHOTOS: BROOKS FRITZ

It’s Christmas eve, Santa has been spotted over Russia already and now is no better time for this weeks Fritz Files update. Nolan was nice enough to come all the way from Idaho to bring you a gift basket of krooky wooks and kickflip fast fast plants. Enjoy.

Have a Merry X Mas, Hanukkah, festivus or what ever it is you celebrate. All I know is Santa better be bringing my daughter a tall Barbie.

• During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute in the United States.

• A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

• Holly berries are poisonous.

• “The Nutcracker” is the most famous Christmas ballet. Luckily for Nolan, no ballet or nut cracking went on this day on the rail.

The first instrument on which the carol “Silent Night” was played was a guitar.

• Based on a 1999 estimated population count of North America and Europe, on Christmas Eve of that year Santa Claus had to visit 42,466,666 homes in a 12-hour period — that’s 983 homes per second.

• Kris Kringel, a man in his 40s, lives in North Pole, Alaska, and delivers pizzas for a living. He drives a 1984 Ford Tempo
  

Maybe Santa will bring me the sequence I shot of this trick of Nolan. I looked everywhere on my hard drive for it and cant find it anywhere.

Happy Holidays. Don’t be any more of a idiot then you already are over the holidays. Johnny Law is waiting.

Tags: happy holidays, krooked grind, Nolan Helmstetter, tall barbie, x mas, x mas facts